Conversion Ratios and Cold-Calling

A member called us this week asking how many cold-calls would she need to make a week to be successful. Not such an easy question as a lot of factors come into play – what is successful? How good of a cold-caller is she? What’s her market doing? Lots of variables come into play here. However we did find some information to help her get a start.

The book Up and Running in 30 Days by Carla Cross takes a broader approach using ‘contacts’ rather than telephone calls. She says that on the sales side 400 contacts per month will return 8 qualifying appointments that will result in 8 showings that will average over time as 1 sale. On the listing side 400 contacts a month will result in 4 seller-qualifying appointments that will lead to 1 listing.

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My coaching clients who are at “Performance Level” can usually convert 50 contacts a week into 3-5 qualified appointments. A lot of skill building and coaching has to be accomplished before effective lead generation can take place. When coaching my clients, I focus on personality style coaching, level shifting & future pacing, effective conversational dialoque for agents to use and efficient follow up systems. Sprinkle in a lot of accountability and success follows!

Kate

Really good information, Angela, thanks for sharing! Speaking from experience, cold calling is very challenging, so it is brlliant that you do a lot of coaching and personality style coaching–I bet your ROI is much higher as a result.

This made me look more closely at my figures. So after making 265 contacts in 18 weeks part time 3 days a week. 165 of those contacts wanted quotes. 28 of those quotes placed orders. so thats a conversion rate of 16%…so is that good?

Carlos

Those numbers seem a bit inflated to me… I’ve been in sales for over 15 years and the average conversion rate is about 2% not 8%… assuming you pitch a very targeted market that 2% can turn into about 3% and a market with very low relevance is more about 1.4%

In fact these numbers are pretty much unchanged across most markets, 20% is the conversion rate if you already have a lead. These numbers don’t change enough with testing your colors, language, time of day etc. for a small business to make much impact (the cost of testing far outweighs the profit) but is much worth it at a much higher level if you are a mid sized to large company!

I’ve been cold calling for 20 years, My documented( lead/data companeis I buy my lists from)conversion rates range from the high teens to mid 20’s. Recently(as of 2/2018) I’ve been in the 30%+ range
Knowing how to call is critical but choosing your lead/call list wisely is priceless.
It’s not hard and it doesn’t have to burn you up. If you truly like talking to people, cold calling is actually fun. (may+be I’m a little weird)
I call both for wealth management- home purchase and refi’s I work with a very select group RE agents and increase their incomes 300%+ without them spending a dime.